I read the paper and listened to Cartalk this morning, then went out into the back yard to do a little culling. I noticed this brown movement and saw my rear neighbor hailing me. She said there was a deer stuck in the corner between my fence and a diagonal neighbor’s fence. So I went back and tried to get the posts farther apart. The neighbor is saying, No, it’s ON a post. So I see this foot-tall protuberance in the poor thing’s back. Evidently there’s a post, possibly a surveying marker, there, that the deer had impaled itself on.
There was nothing to do but call animal control, who sent a cop over to shoot it. My daughter wanted to go out and take care of it till the cops got here – I was having trouble concentrating on yard work because it kept staring at me with those big fawnlike eyes. And animal control still hasn’t picked it up.
Oh, that’s sad! Definitely a grim beginning to the morning.
I hate to mention this, being that bringing up something like this is tacky and all, given the circumstances, but, umm, wouldn’t it be a good thing . . . really, if you think about it . . . and I think it might be what the deer would have wanted . . . to find a Useful Purpose in all of this and, umm, rather than having animal control haul it off to a landfill . . . what a sad end that would be . . . freeze it? In little packages? You know . . . little packages labelled “venison?”
Folks, unless it’s deer season where you are, and you have a liscense, you can’t legally shoot it or butcher it.
I know it seem sheartless, but the best thing to do is just try not to look at it or think about it too much until the animal control officer arrives to finish it off.
In some jurisdictions, there are provisions for the disposal of accidentally generated deer carcases. Where I live, the sheriff’s deputies and state fish and game officers carry tags for this purpose, and a road-killed deer can be claimed and hauled to the butcher just like one that you shot yourself. Protocol is that first dibs goes to the person who hit the deer, but after that it can go to whoever wants it, usually in the following order – the deputy, the cop working the accident, any other cops on duty at the time, whoever’s yard the deer ended up in, and finally, the goobers who listen to their scanners hoping to hear about an accident with a dead deer in the order they show up at the scene. Priority is given if you have a truck and can haul it away immediately.
A friend of mine’s brother accidently killed one with his car, left his son to stand guard while he drove home to report it and switch over to his pick-up truck to go back and pick it up.
When he got back to the deer there were several cars in line with their drivers all trying to talk his son and him into sharing the deer.
My hunting friends tell me its important to clean the deer as soon as you can. They gut it in the field. (When their kids shoot their first deer the proud papa takes pictures of the kid gutting it.)
Anyway…
my friend said she was sooo sure her brother’s younger children (that weren’t old enough to go hunting) were going to be traumatized by watching their daddy and older brothers gut the deer and hang it on the garage to bleed dry, but quite the contrary.
They all milled about asking how soon before dinner.
Depending where the deer has been impaled (like through the intestines or other aspects of the digestive track) the meat may or may not be edible.
Very sad way to start the day Chas. Unfortunately it is an all too common event, in one form or another, wild life coming into contact/conflict with encroaching humanity.
Oh, I thought about it, but I strongly suspect its bowels are shredded by the post going through it. It’s a pity, as it’s a fairly young deer and would probably be as good eatin’ as it gets.
Edited to add: it’s legal around here (at least in Maryland, possibly not in my county) to eat roadkill. There are parts of the state where if you see a deer on the road way to work AND on the way back that you know its bowels are a mess.
Boy, I really can’t imagine that happening. I’m afraid someone would have had to call the mental health control people for me. I guess as long as someone came out and shot it right away that’s the main thing. Definitely a really horrible way to start the day. Man.
It’s a relief to see you taking this so well! I had worried that it might not be the sort of thing you should even read about! But, I must say, you’re dealing with it handily.
Although I understand that the deer population in most areas is completely out of control due to the slaughter of its natural predators, and that hunting is now the only humane way of keeping the population under control, I just can’t seem to control myself when deer hunters start to boast of their prowess. An overwhelming impulse seizes me, and I find myself shrieking in a high pitched voice, “Bambi! Bambi!” Children’s faces fall. Women blanch. Hunters give me decidedly black looks.
